A $1.3 million grant will fund a project in the Florida State University College of Social Work that aims to combat the opioid epidemic across eight southeastern states.

The two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will go to the Center for the Study and Promotion of Communities, Families and Children (CFC Center). It will target 168 rural counties across Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.

FSU faculty from across the College of Social Work and beyond will participate in the project said Ellen Piekalkiewicz, director of the CFC Center and the project’s lead investigator. 

“These rural areas have been hit particularly hard by the opioid epidemic,” Piekalkiewicz said. “The overdose death rate for rural areas has surpassed the death rate for urban and suburban areas.”

“Rural areas face unique challenges dealing with the crisis including smaller health care infrastructure than densely populated areas, community and family factors and labor market stressors,” added Tanya Renn, social work assistant professor and co-principal investigator for the project. 

The project is named “Building Rural Community Health and Resilience: The Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Center for Region 4” and will target youths in rural areas. Hardships like scarce economic opportunity, living in a region prone to natural disasters like tornadoes and hurricanes and easier access to opioids increase the likelihood for self-medicating and substance use in Region 4.

"Opioid use often begins early in adolescence and young adulthood, said Jane Dwyer Lee, a teaching professor at the FSU College of Social Work and expert in substance use issues working on the project.

“Stigma surrounding treatment is something that is frequently faced by this population,” Dwyer Lee said. “Research has shown that rural areas face an uphill battle related to negative attitudes towards harm reduction techniques for substance use treatment, such as syringe service programs, fentanyl test strips and naloxone distribution.”

The interdisciplinary team includes Margaret Sullivan (FSU College of Communication and Information) and Raoul Lavin, a recently retired assistant manager for the City of Tallahassee and adjunct professor with FSU’s Askew School of Public Administration along with Barbara Andraka-Christou (University of Central Florida).

Researchers from Florida A&M University will also work on the team through a grant subaward. The FAMU team members includes Vonda Richardson, director of the FAMU’s Cooperative Extension Program and Jacqueline McMillian, a social work professor.

“This award will fund a collaborative effort lead by the CFC and Florida State University to address an epidemic that impacts some of the most vulnerable populations in our region,” said Craig Stanley, interim dean of the College of Social Work. “This project represents FSU’s continued commitment to addressing substance use as a public health crisis impacting our nation at an unprecedented level.”

The project will include a collaboration of the Southeastern Consortium with the Addiction Technology Transfer Centers, Prevention Technology Transfer Centers and Mental Health Technology Transfer Centers to provide cutting edge online training on opioid misuse and related disorders, evidence-based prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery services. The project will also develop tools and trainings to assist with enhancing resilience and coping with stressful events. Finally, the consortium will distribute its resources and innovations to Rural Opioid Technical Assistance grantees, partners and centers.

There has been a sustained focus from FSU and its affiliated organizations to collaborate to address larger social problems, including behavioral health. The project is an extension of efforts of the CFC Center and the university to support communities affected by the opioid epidemic and other human and natural disasters.

The FSU Center for the Study and Promotion for Communities, Families and Children generates and sustains transformational knowledge development with the goal of informing effective policies, services and usable research for the promotion of communities, families and children.